21 November 2024 saw the most recent Policy Engagement Forum (PEF) activity organised by ForestPaths, an EU-funded project dedicated to co-designing forest-based policy pathways for Europe. The online event (a dedicated report on which will be published in the near future) was the result of efforts by the Prospex Institute, a member of the research consortium behind the project.

This format fosters connections between scientific expertise and stakeholder activities, bringing the two into close contact to ensure the sustainable governance of European forests in the decades to come. In that sense, the PEF is designed to be a platform for showcasing research results and discussing their practical application in the field.

The centrepiece of this edition was the Climate and Biodiversity-Smart (CBS) approach to forest management. More specifically, the question that dominated the conversation concerned the nature of policies that are more conducive to CBS methodologies.

The session thus began with an introductory presentation on the topic in the context of ForestPaths. Accordingly, the project itself was initially in the spotlight along with its most recent results, including the update of the European Forest Disturbance Atlas and the development of open-source tools for wood material flow monitoring (aiphoria) and Life Cycle Analysis (bw_timex).

Building on this, CBS management was defined as an approach ensuring the resilience of forests in the face of climate-related risks and more stringent green targets, which participants were invited to then discuss.

Consensus was reached on the fact that, against the background of a climate crisis and biodiversity decline, Europe should set an example by managing forests in a way that can help mitigate those harmful developments. Much of the conversation also revolved around existing challenges on the road to that goal - historical forest damage, lack of national political will and public awareness, limited financial support and administrative hurdles.

Participants were informed of ForestPaths’s efforts to address some of these issues via innovative tools and practical demo cases. All of this builds towards the project’s ultimate objective to strengthen the climate mitigation potential of forests and the wood industry whilst conserving their biodiversity.

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ForestPaths (Co-designing Holistic Forest-based Policy Pathways for Climate Change Mitigation) receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (ID No 101056755), as well as from the United Kingdom Research and Innovation Council (UKRI). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.